Kintsugi

All her life, Marie O’Rourke has been a Good Girl, a perfectionist, using words to apply golden seams to an imperfect life in an attempt to make something beautiful out of things that are flawed or broken. A volatile father, the death of a sister far too young, a faltering marriage, the ghosts of lovers past: these are just some of the fragments that Marie puts together again in these essays that explore her closest relationships as a daughter, sister, mother, wife and lover.

With exquisite prose, Marie reflects on the beauty of brokenness and the ways in which time can transform our understanding of truth, forgiveness, and healing. These essays are a poignant reminder that some things cannot be fixed but can still hold immense beauty and meaning. Whether you’ve experienced similar struggles, or are seeking a deeper understanding of the human experience, Marie’s collection will leave you moved and inspired.

How many of us feel our family life is not picture perfect? This book will resonate with those who are interested in exploring the human condition through universal themes of love and loss, forgiveness and redemption.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

‘[Marie] has an admirable lightness of touch in dealing with potentially bleak material, but is also thoughtful and emotionally engaging.’ Sydney Morning Herald

‘O’Rourke is fiercely experimental and explores themes of loss, perfectionism, longing, and healing, fragmenting her identity within the collection through the use of first-, second-, and third-person points of view… ‘ Books+Publishing

‘An ultimately affirming memoir of familial rupture, grief and growth emerges mosaic-like from a series of short, stylistically diverse narratives. Kintsugi combines autobiographical moments with often essay-like reflections on these, and on apt quotes from historical and contemporary writers, revealing ways of creating a coherent self from a fractured life’ Simone Lazaro

‘… a remarkable construction … a kind of manifesto in its depiction and especially in its valuing of female experience, in its careful and finally passionate depiction of how patriarchy works to make girls into women who will serve its needs as they serve the needs of the individual men it empowers.’ Katherine Coles

‘Kintsugi might be Marie O’Rourke’s debut full-length work, but it firmly establishes her as a powerful voice in creative non-fiction. Highly recommended.’ Writing WA

‘Over the course of sixteen formally varied and often powerfully vulnerable personal essays, O’Rourke—who wrote the Hungerford Award-shortlisted manuscript as part of her Creative Writing PhD thesis at Curtin University—reflects on some of the pivotal events of her own life, the changing ways she has remembered them, and how this has informed her similarly fluid sense of self.’ Westerly Magazine